Introduction to IT Education

In this cenntury people who want to live in the world with wisdom need to study and learn the computer system

Physically, the "internet" is just computers all over the world, connected together so they can send information to each other. The Internet has become the world's communication, the world's commerce, and the world's library. The internet is new, about 28 years old. And websites only started 17 years ago! Yet it is rapidly changing the world. It is a revolution comparable to the printing press of the industrial revolution in the west. It is changing how the world communicates and works.

IT (information Technology) consists of the physical technology, web development, programming ,library science, and many other fields related to spreading and organizing information. It is a broad field with room for people of many different skills, temperament, and levels of education. It is also a growing field, with many jobs opening up as far into the future as we can see. Every organization and company has to have a website these days, which makes demand high for graphic designers, writers, programmers, and web technicians.

Even if a person's job is not directly in the IT field, every educated job involves computer and the Internet. Managers, coworkers, everyone can do their job better, manage others better, and understand our new world better, when they have more understanding of how the Internet works, and how websites work. In the world today, the Internet is the main source of current information for journalists, policy makers, thinkers, as well as the average person.

The question arises: Why don't Tibetan Youth go to one of the many IT institutions in India? The answer is that many student who have been to those schools, report that the schools are more interested in getting their fees, than in any kind of quality teaching. If some body misses a clas, the school put a lot of effort into collecting the "late fee" but none into helping student catch up with what they missed! And it is reported that the school seems to teach by rote — concepts out of books, with very little hands-on practice. Many people say "I studied C, C++, and Java" — but very few can do actual programming. This observation is corroborated bt western IT experts. There are good institutions in India, but they are at a higher level, and are very expensive.

Some Tibetans who have had the oppurtunity to study at good IT institutions are already making their mark in IT in India. In Delhi there are several software companies started, owned, and run by young Tibetans. LatengOnline.com is owned by Tenzing Norsang who also maintains the well-known Tibetan news site, Phayul.com. One of his goals is to hire more Tibetan programmers as he grows. Another Tibetan has a Software company in South Delhi, and two or three have started web development businesses, such as TibetWebGuru